Now let’s fast forward to 2017 and this year’s Forrester Consumer Marketing Forum which was held in NYC last week. Kicking things off, host Melissa Parrish asked brands to think about how their marketing can be more value-driven – not value in terms of product benefits but rather aligning with customers’ core values and beliefs.

Gone are the days when brands could stay neutral and avoid hot-button issues like politics. In the post-digital world, consumers can choose what brands they interact with and when they interact with them. And increasingly, these choices are being made based on shared values.

So how can brands know which issues to address and with which values to align?